Good Crist

Looks like Crist is really following through on his pro-environmental policies. Central Florida Political Pulse:

Gov. Charlie Crist announced two major initiatives Monday to strengthen alternative energy in Florida: A $182 million deal for a garbage-to-electricity plant in Tallahassee and a pledge to encourage Congress to end an import tax on Brazilian ethanol.

If we can get Crist to continue to move to the left on issues like this, Florida might actually rebound from the horror the Jeb years gave us. Some of our Democratic legislators should be as liberal on some of these issues as Crist is. Some of them are afraid that if they act too liberal they'll lose. Crist's approval ratings seem to disagree.

Good Crist

Wow, Florida Republicans are fighting some of President Bush's dumber policies. Blast Off!:

Following a similar move by the House on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted a short time ago to override Drunky McStagger's veto of a water resources bill with crucial benefits to Florida. To achieve the first override of Drunky's presidency, quite a few Republicans had to support the bill, and they actually did.

"Rep. John Mica, a Winter Park conservative who votes with the president about 90 percent of the time, led the charge in the House, which voted 223-138 on Tuesday for override. Sen. Mel Martinez, who was the president's hand-picked chairman of the national GOP until recently, voted to override. And Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist took time out from a trip to Brazil to lobby Florida lawmakers to split with the president. All the Florida Democrats and 12 of 17 House Republicans voted to override Bush."

If they keep doing things like this, we might have to start thinking that some of these people are actually sane. Naaahhh, that won't happen.

McCollum Hates Reality

becoming change:

[Florida] Attorney General Bill McCollum said he remains skeptical about the climate-change debate.

Seriously, it's 2007, are we still doing the whole "global warming isn't confirmed" nonsense? Really?

Good Crist

At least verbally supporting the environment:

Gov. Charlie Crist today praised the Orlando Utilities Commission and its partner Southern Co. for halting construction of a half-billion-dollar coal plant to serve as many as 70,000 homes.

"That’s fantastic," Crist said, shortly after an appearance at a fundraising luncheon for Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman University in Orlando.

Earlier this year, Crist launched what has been become a nationally recognized mission to lessen the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in Florida by electric plants, cars and other sources.

"I’m very happy for the people of Florida that’s occurring," Crist said. "Coal is what it is and I know it’s been an important source of energy in the past. But you know we have solar, we have nuclear, we have wind and other alternative opportunities for energy in the Sunshine State."

I hope that doesn't mean he's going to pursue any further nuclear power...

Crist Hates the Mentally Ill

Florida is a bad place to be if you have any kind of strong mental illness:

Chief Justice Fred Lewis and Gov. Charlie Crist are both scheduled to attend a summit Wednesday where they'll release an exhaustive, 200-page report on problems Florida’s social services and court systems face dealing with the mentally ill.

One example, the court says, is that mentally ill are incarcerated so often in Florida that jails have become the top mental health care providers in many communities.

"I think we all recognize that Florida now is stuck in a vicious cycle of inappropriate behavior leading to inappropriate incarceration, again and again," Judge Lewis sad in a statement released Monday.

But Florida appears headed into a bad season for new spending requests.

If Crist wanted to, he could force this issue. He isn't doing it. Is he going to do it later? Probably not. Why not?

Crist Loves Corporate Welfare

Whew, it's a damned good thing we've gotten that whole economy thing worked out. It's good that our governor has time for things like this:

The Buzz:

Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning he has "pretty much'' pledged to do whatever he can to help the Tampa Bay Rays get political help and money they need from the state to build a new 35,000-seat ballpark on the site of Al Lang Field in downtown St. Petersburg.

It's great to cut welfare services for poor people and instead focus on getting more welfare to corporations. And this is the best type of corporate welfare, too. We give a whole bunch of tax money to a private corporation for a totally unnecessary project which those corporations will make huge profits off of and give none of it back to the state. It's a win-win! Except for the people. (And, apparently, the baseball team that can't figure out how to win no matter how hard they try).

And, yes, I know that major league teams provide some jobs. But there are many more cost-efficient ways to bring jobs to the state. Jobs that are year-round, high-paying and stable.

DEP Doing the Right Thing

Central Florida Political Pulse:

But upon closer inspection, DEP isn’t so cheerful.

“If implemented, the (plan) would starve the Apalachicola River and Bay of freshwater flows needed to keep the ecosystems, species, and economy alive,” DEP Secretary Michael Sole wrote to the Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday.

Further, Sole writes the tight, two-week deadline the feds have imposed for input isn’t adequate and the proposal to cap river flow through Florida at 4,150-5,000 cubic feet per second “would not only precipitate a catastrophic collapse of the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay but also displace the entire economy of the Bay region.”

The root of the problem appears to be overdevelopment in northern Georgia. The fishermen and women of Apalachicola should not suffer because of bad growth management in Georgia.

Good Crist

Contrary to popular belief, the point of this blog is not to make the Republican members of the cabinet look bad. The point is to draw an accurate picture of these people and let them make themselves look bad. That means from time to time, they might actually look good on certain issues:

Charlie Crist sent a letter to Florida's Congressional delegation asking them to override Bush's veto of the Water Resources Development Act.

"While I appreciate the president's concern over the total cost of the bill, WRDA 2007 authorizes several vital water projects throughout our state, including necessary Everglades restoration projects," Crist wrote.